Suffolk

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Number of voters:

about 5,000

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
2 Feb. 1715SIR THOMAS HANMER 
 SIR ROBERT DAVERS 
30 Mar. 1722SIR THOMAS HANMER 
 SIR ROBERT DAVERS 
31 Oct. 1722SIR WILLIAM BARKER vice Davers, deceased 
30 Aug. 1727SIR JERMYN DAVERS3079
 SIR WILLIAM BARKER2963
 John Holt2365
9 Feb. 1732SIR ROBERT KEMP vice Barker, deceased 
1 May 1734SIR ROBERT KEMP 
 SIR JERMYN DAVERS 
5 Mar. 1735SIR CORDELL FIREBRACE vice Kemp, deceased 
20 May 1741SIR JERMYN DAVERS 
 SIR CORDELL FIREBRACE 
23 Mar. 1743JOHN AFFLECK vice Davers, deceased 
2 July 1747SIR CORDELL FIREBRACE 
 JOHN AFFLECK 

Main Article

In Suffolk the general meeting of the nobility, gentry, and freeholders usually chose two Tories without opposition. The only contest occurred in 1727, when the local Whigs, headed by the Duke of Grafton, the Earl of Bristol, and Lord Cornwallis, put up a candidate against the sitting Tory Members, who were re-elected.1 In 1747 the Whigs, meeting separately from the Tories, put up two candidates, who withdrew before the poll.2

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. West Stow & Woodwell Parish Registers 1518-1850 (1903), p. 233.
  • 2. Grafton to Newcastle, 20, 30 June, 2 July 1747, Add. 32711, ff. 433, 604; 32712, f. 17; Letter Bks. of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, iii. 333-4.